Ridicule mock: to reduce or dismiss the importance or quality of somebody or something in a contemptuous way.

A recent discussion has gotten me thinking more about a certain mindset that seems common in the online atheist community.  The discussion had a lot of bleed-over from a previous discussion, then I was offline for a few days and the conversation dissipated, so I'm throwing this out here.  The mindset that it is justified to ridicule those who have irrational beliefs.…

Israel’s government says that Rachel Corrie’s

2003 death in Gaza, was not the fault of the

military whose army bulldozer rolled over her,

stating that it was “an accident she brought

upon herself” & so, was the Palestinian family

who had been living in the home which young

Rachel was standing in front of, put there by

accident?

have the Palestinian people who live in Gaza

been doing so by…

Is there anyone who doesn't ask this question? If not, why not? I'm pretty confident that any thinker has pondered this. Hmmm... why is this such a concern of ours? Why is this question in our mind? Why were we not content with just being? You know, as in the earth was always here.

Well, regardless, we asked.

Science is now telling us that the universe came into existence when a primordial start of elemental condition started to expand. Which still begs the question,…

So the title of my blog today is Get Off My Lawn.  The reason I have chosen to title it as such is because I feel like a sour, mean, crotchety, toothless old man in a wife beater sitting on his porch with a shotgun yelling at the neighborhood kids to "Get off my lawn!!!"



In this instance, I will assume the role of the mean old man, and I will hold that position with pride.  The neighborhood kids in this instance are theists, mainly Christians.  Since I am a lower…

I have a new project. It’s called “3 Questions”, and it is exactly as it sounds; I will ask the atheist/agnostic/skeptic community 3 questions about the importance of atheism, skepticism or agnosticism to themselves, the wider community, and the world, and post the results here.

Why do I think this is important or even interesting?

Mainly because I see a lot of very vocal atheists and skeptics getting their viewpoints seen, heard and read, and…

Did you know that an increase of some degrees in global temperature may actually be good to the human race?

I found this out reading one of many Asimov's non-fiction books. In it (written last century, before this AGW craze) he stated that global warming was not all the bad that people thought: actually, some degrees increase would make huge portions of Siberia and Canada livable and food-producing... which meant that it would be a good thing overall to the human…

Another week, another thread about abortion, another few pages of shallow analysis. In this great echo chamber of the streamlining of opinion and metaphorical burning of heretics, I rarely see anything original being added to this discussion and I feel the need to say my piece.

As an atheist I do not afford a voice in the debate to priests and others on moral crusades. As a rationalist I neither afford it to judges, politicians, special interest groups, celebrities, or, indeed, even…

And if the disease is in the walls of the house with greenish or reddish spots, and if it appears to be deeper than the surface, then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days. . . If the disease breaks out again in the house, after he has taken out the stones and scraped the house and plastered it, then the priest shall go and look.  And if the disease has spread in the house, it is a persistent leprous disease in the house;…

a nation of increasing unemployment,

severely increasing debt & corporate

greed that does not respect its employees,

treating them like disposable

cogs (to be squeezed for every drop of

blood until dead inside & then cast out

onto the sidewalk).

+

a culture of violence.

+

a ready available

.45 caliber shotgun

&

a manhattan street

(fully equipped…

when a loved one dies

whilst wallowing in that

savage cesspool of religious

belief---whatever batch it

might be---there may very well

be those especial cretins who

see fit to condemn the amount

of time spent by those grieving

(found to be doing so

within the very same cage as

their fellow prisoners of said

cesspool in question) to be

TOO LONG a period of time

&

when it gets pointed out…

Quasi-crystals and their nonperiodic  indeterminate assemblages appears to point to a higher quantum reality first posed by Dr. Roger Penrose in his book, "The Emperors New Mind". In short, it is impossible for  crystals having 5 fold symmetry to grow without first knowing a prior what the final over all arrangement will be. Yet unmistakably they do grow in nature. This phenomenon could be explain by conjecturing a higher quantum reality in which all conceivable arrangements exist in Hilbert…

published Aug 20, 2012

by CHIP ROWE

PLAYBOY: What is the A pin you’re wearing?

DAWKINS: It stands for “atheist.”

PLAYBOY: Like a scarlet letter?

DAWKINS: It’s not meant to reflect that. It’s part of my foundation’s Out Campaign. It means stand out and reach out, as well as come out for the beliefs you hold, and…

What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?

This radical Christian's ministry for the poor, The Simple Way, has gotten him in some trouble with his fellow Evangelicals. We asked him to address those who don't believe.

By Shane Claiborne

Recently, Representative Todd Aiken (R -- Missouri) caused a furor when he stated that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant.  Soon, he was on his heels, backtracking and trying to save his race for a senate seat.  Sharon Barnes, a member of the Missouri Republican committee tried to explain his comment.  Ms. Barnes "echoed Mr. Akin’s statement that very few rapes resulted in pregnancy, adding that 'at that point, if God has chosen to bless this person with a life, you don’t kill…

My dear mother thinks our country (United States) while losing it's traditions is somehow also losing what makes America great. I told her many traditions are founded on erroneous information and even fallacious. She doesn't like the fact that some individuals making an appearance in court to testify don't always place their hand on the bible. Why would someone feel inclined to believe that a book would somehow compel an individual to actually tell the gospel truth? It's a ludicrous…

By Dan

(henrymakow.com)

While being married to a lesbian for 20 years was painful, it actually made me a better person.

I met my ex-wife when I was about 14 years old. We grew up in the same small town in Missouri. She and I are 4th cousins as well.

She took an interest in me when I was 21 years old. She…

My name is Dan Abshear, and I am a recovering drug addict.

My substance abuse began with alcohol intake, in my early teens. My mother used to insist me and my older teen brother, also a young teenager, party with her, by getting drunk with her.

My mother would give alcohol to us, and my older brother’s many young teenage friends, often. This went on for years. My mother, by the way, should have gone to prison for this, as this is contributing to the delinquency of minors,…